A scholar of international policy and governance issues pertaining to development, Sievers served as the founding executive director of Columbia University’s Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development and Harvard University’s Center for International Development.

“Sara Sievers brings to the Keough School and Notre Dame vast experience and success in bridging the worlds of policy, practice and the academy in ways that improve the lives of people, especially the poor," said Scott Appleby, Marilyn Keough Dean of the school. “We are delighted that she is joining our team in this critical phase of shaping the trajectory of the Keough School. Through her teaching, mentoring and leadership, Sara will serve as a terrific role model for the internationally oriented Notre Dame students who will become the global leaders of the future.”

Sievers, who earned a B.A. in government from Harvard and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has taught applied international development at the at Harvard and Columbia. She also has worked for the U.S. State Department as the vice consul for political and economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, and as special assistant to the assistant secretary for legislative affairs in Washington.

Sievers has written on a wide range of subjects, including national competitiveness, governance, the status of orphans and vulnerable children, and the abolition of user fees in health and education.